Love Medicine Themes

Erdrich puts a family tree right smack at the front of the book, so you get a sense right off the bat that family is going to be pretty important to everything that happens… plus, the relationshi...

Gods and spirits are swirling around everywhere in this book, and their relationships to the characters are super complicated. It seems like Catholicism kind of exists alongside Ojibwe customs and...

Alcohol abuse is everywhere in Love Medicine, particularly among the male characters, and that definitely contributes to our overall sense that these characters are not happy campers. As Nector him...

Well, the title of the book is Love Medicine, so we're sure you're not surprised to see this theme on our list. With the book's emphasis on family, love is obviously going to be pretty important—...

Okay, so war isn't happening on the fields of North Dakota, but the Vietnam War happens during the span of Love Medicine and that conflict definitely has a major impact on Henry Lamartine Junior, w...

Alcohol abuse isn't the only kind of abuse going on in the Love Medicine—there's plenty of psychological and physical abuse as well. This happens within families, with characters often carrying o...

As if the novel's other big themes didn't provide enough sadness, death is also a player in Love Medicine. In particular, there happen to be a ton of (possible?) suicides in the book, suggesting th...

If you know even a little bit about Native American history, you know that there's a lot of reason for tension between Native Americans and European Americans—and that are still a lot of prejudic...